1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a system and method for adding intelligence to a high speed communications network, such as, for example, a SDH/SONET/TDM network, in order to enable the assignment of time slots without user intervention.
2. Discussion of Background and Relevant Information
Today, telephone voice communications that originate at a first location, such as, for example, New York, are rapidly and efficiently routed along a public switched telephone network (PSTN) to a terminating point, such as, for example, Washington, D.C. without the assistance of, for example, an operator. However, this has not always been the case. When the telephone network company was originally designed, a plurality of operators were employed across the country to assist in establishing a communication link. When the person in New York wished to speak with the person in Washington, D.C., a New York operator would “patch” the call to, for example, a New Jersey operator. The New Jersey operator would then “patch” the call through to, for example, a Delaware operator. This process would be repeated as many times as necessary, until the call was received by an operator that handles calls in the Washington, D.C. region, who would then direct the call to the desired party. This process was inefficient and limited the number of separate (distinct) communications that could take place at any one time.
In order to automate the above procedure, a process was developed for assigning telephone numbers to telephone lines to provide for the automatic routing of calls placed over the PSTN. In particular, a public network addressing standard, known as ITU-T Recommendation E.164, was adopted, in which a unique address having a maximum of 15 digits is assigned to each telephone line.
As time passed, the amount of data transmitted over the PSTN dramatically increased. In addition, new types of data, such as, for example, digital computer data, began to transmitted over the telephone network. It was quickly determined that the PSTN was an inefficient network for transmitting high speed digital data. Accordingly, work began on the development of a new network appropriate for handling the quantity and speed of digital data to be transmitted between locations.
In order to transmit large quantities of digital information, the telecommunications industry developed a Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) that offers data transmission rates from approximately 51.84 Mbps to approximately 13.22 Gbps. It is noted that SONET has been adopted by the ITU-T with minor modifications (directed primarily to transfer speeds), where it is referred to as Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH). SONET and SDH are closely related to each other, and for purposes of the present discussion, may be considered to be the same.
While SONET, SDH and Time Division Multiplex (TDM) networks permit the efficient transmission of large quantities of data, such networks require the manual setup and alteration of the origination and termination points. Accordingly, it is difficult to rapidly and easily change configurations and connection setups.